> all i see today are walls instead of bridges.
Whenever I read these comments I wonder if people are using a different Internet than I am, because this isn't my experience at all.
I can access whatever I want, discuss whatever I want, and interact with whoever I want online. We have a multitude of platforms to choose from and I don't even have to pay for most of them. Honestly I don't even look at ads because I downloaded a free ad-blocker plugin for my free web browser and it all just works.
Even my social media is nothing like the dystopian claims I see online. I don't use Facebook much, but whenever I open the app it's just fun photos and updates from the people I want to keep in touch with. I have zero problems with that because I enjoy seeing the people around me happy, having fun, and succeeding.
I suspect these dystopian viewpoints come less from real-world experience and more from bouncing ideas around in echo chambers. It seems the people who are most opinionated about what social media is or isn't are those with the least direct experience in the matter, instead substituting hyper-dramatized accounts from news stories, HN comments, and agenda-pushing documentaries like "The Social Dilemma". There's a certain sense of elitism involved wherein the anti-social-media and anti-silicon-valley people feel that they are the only ones who see through the facade and understand what's really going on.